Influences 10: Superpitcher

Aksel Schaufler explores the musical path that led to 'The Golden Ravedays.'

Superpitcher is Paris-based Aksel Schaufler, a German producer commonly affiliated with Kompakt. The Paris-based artist's production career dates back to the late '90s before he made his appearance on the Cologne label with "Shadows," a deeply melodic downtempo house affair featured on the Total 2 compilation—and his contributions thereafter, including a plethora of later EPs and two long-players, have established him as one of Kompakt's central artists. His range of work encompasses techno, microhouse, and the dreamy emotive pop for which he is most widely acknowledged.

Much of Schaufler's work has landed on Hippie Dance, the independent label he co-founded alongside Rebolledo in 2011. Schaufler and Rebolledo are also Pachanga Boys, a production and performance duo founded in 2009. But Superpitcher’s roots go deep. His pre-Kompakt days saw him produce dub and reggae as Sir Positive in the late '90s. In 2015 he also released the Disco In The Sky album as King So So, an album that marked an evolution in his sound and laid the foundations of his later projects. Within his catalog of more recent material is The Golden Ravedays, Schaufler's third and latest long-player offering, and his most expansive work to date. The album arrived over the course of 2017, with one 12" "chapter" vinyl record released at the end of each month, before being made available as one complete box set later that year. And Schaufler's XLR8R Influences podcast is similarly autobiographical in that it represents some of the genres that have inspired him along the way. The Cure, Brian Eno, and Arthur Russell all feature, combined with some lesser-known but similarly influential records from Schaufler's youth.

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"Inspiration is abstract

Inspiration is everywhere

Inspiration cannot be faked

It is in books, arts, films, nature, people, music, and in all the things in between that we can't even see or hear. To me, music has been my magical life companion and my main source of inspiration. But there are so many different styles and genres, much of it one can’t even define! Our planet is wrapped in music and is the gravitational force to so many people. That is why it is, to me, an almost impossible task to talk about it or to select music for a mixtape about inspiration. I realized that if I had to choose out of all there is that inspired me, there will always be something missing along the way, so instead, I have decided to create a mixtape that features a representative collection of songs and tracks that influenced my own sound. This is not a mix of all time favorites and you'll see there are some important musical genres missing, such as folk, hip-hop, minimal music, soul, etc. (that also inspires me, but I had to draw the line somewhere!) These are simply some of my favorite songs and people at work, and probably some of them inspired The Golden Ravedays—who knows?"—Superpitcher